The present invention relates to furnishings for offices and the like, and in particular to a floor track system which is especially adapted to route utilities to workstations in open office plans, and other similar settings.
Open office plans are well known in the art, and generally comprise large, open floor spaces that are partitioned off into individual workstations by movable panels. Such partition panels often include an electrical raceway along the bottom of the panel to provide electrical power to the various workstations. Two examples of such open office plans are disclosed in the Propst et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,495 and the Driscoll U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,755.
Partition panels in such open office plans are typically configured to receive hang-on furniture units, such as work surfaces, overhead cabinets, shelves, etc., so that the panels become an integral part of the workstation furnishings. One example of such a partition panel arrangement is disclosed in the Breiner U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,972. These partition panels and hang-on furniture arrangements are usually known in the office furniture industry as "systems furniture." Such systems furniture arrangements have some inherent restrictions in versatility, since each workstation must necessarily include certain types of partition panels in order to support the hang-on furniture units. Furthermore, the hang-on furniture units can be assembled only in a limited number of different arrangements.
A unique alternative arrangement for dividing and partitioning open office plans is disclosed in related co-pending application Ser. No. 307,775, filed Feb. 7, 1989, entitled MODULAR FURNITURE, which has been incorporated by reference into the present application. This new arrangement provides a plurality of individual furniture units, each of which is independently supported on the floor of the open office. The furniture units have a novel modular construction which permits them to be individually arranged and combined in a predetermined configuration to create a selected number of distinct workstations.
The present floor track system is particularly adapted to provide utilities, such as electrical power, communication cables, etc. to this new modular furniture arrangement, and is also capable of being used in many other settings